The Clippers played a nearly flawless game, but it's not unfair to suggest that reading tonight's box score is a little like perusing a hotel restaurant menu.You need to discount the numbers a little to get an idea of how much each item is worth.But it's fair to count Chris Kaman as an exception.Though the overall matchup favored the Clips, Kaman had plenty to deal with in Alonzo Mourning. 'Zo is a double-diamond, a high seed to draw for any opposing center. Kaman dominated 'Zo, going 9-12 from the field for 20.His nine field goals:

[1st, 11:38]As was the case all night, the Heat single-cover Chris here.Kaman sets up low on the right side and gets prime position against 'Zo.Easy entry pass from Shaun to Chris' outstretched left hand.Chris swoops it up, sweeps the ball parallel to the arc, bangs 'Zo assertively with his right shoulder, and dribbles twice.He then collects the rock cleanly, hops onto a spot with both feed, and assigns the ball to his left hand --- but not before he elevates.With a gentle touch, Chris' left-handed hook is pure silk.

[1st, 10:10] After setting a screen on the opposite elbow earlier in the set on Dorell Wright for Maggette, Kaman cuts over to the low right block where he get the ball promptly from Q Ross.Chris dribbles once right into the paint with his left hand, then spins baseline and hits the righthanded hook.

[1st, 8:30]Here, the Clippers are in the transition.Chris, who collected the rebound on the other end, is trailing the play.He breezes right past Mourning and Shaun picks him up immediately as he [Chris] dives toward the hoop.Chris gets it from Shaun directly on the low, low right block.Kapono comes over to challenge, but Kaman stops, then waits for Kapono's momentum to carry himself past, at which point Chris goes up for the little reverse layup.

[1st, 3:50]Very, very early into the set --- at :19 --- Ewing swings it into Kaman in the right mid-post against Michael Doleac. Two left-handed dribbles, then Chris stops.He holds the ball for a minute, looking for help. Finding nothing much, he pivots left, then unloads while falling away, kissing the insane face-up 12-foot jumper off the glass.

[1st, 2:42] Because Doleac has jumped out to double Brand, Kaman sneaks underneath way, way, way low against poor Jason Kapono.Brand struggles a little to get the pass over both Haslem and Doleac, but finds Kaman.After one little dribble toward the middle of the lane, Chris collects it with the left and goes up with another hook shot.

[2nd, 4:56] Chris again establishes deep against 'Zo.Maggette zips him a quality entry pass, which Chris scoops up with his left.One left-handed dribble, then this time he spins left.Hops. Turns Baseline. Springs.A beaut of a right-hander kissed off the glass.And the foul.

[3rd. 10:23] The Clippers have to slow up the break.As Q backs out with it, Kaman is trailing.He hits Kaman, who's cutting down the lane.Kaman, in motion, catches it in the gut of the lane.He dribbles once with his right, fluidly spins clockwise away from Kapono into Mourning, who was behind the play.While drawing contact, Kaman goes up and hits the face-up right-hander.Hits the FT.

[3rd, 7:56] Off a long Maggette attempt, Chris bounces off Mourning to sweep the weak-side glass.He collects it with his right and goes back up strongly.

[4th, 4:00]Chris sets a screen up top for Shaun, then quickly steps off it into the right mid-post against Earl Barron [Is it just me or does Barron look like he has the perceptible skills to have a legitimate NBA career?].One left-handed dribble.Spin baseline.Right-hander off the glass.

The Clips are lucky Isiah Thomas wasn't on the other bench, because EB and Kaman were in the game until the bitter end.I was surprised we didn't see Aaron Williams or Paul Davis, but there may've been things Dunleavy wanted ironed out. I'm sure Ron Rothstein has better things to be concerned about.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

Good news!

We have launched a new ClipperBlog.com site! You are currently on our old system & are viewing an archived page. We will continue to keep all 670 posts from our first 3 years on this archive site. Soon we will be closing the comments for each of these older posts.

Comments

Finally, I knew it woould happen, people climbing back on the Kaman bandwagon. Lets put some things into perspective here: 1. going to russia. what a joke, fly all the way over their, terrible food, not the greatest living conditions, and just plain odd. Especially for such a sheltered boy like chris. Give him his own bed, his familiar surroundings, and his buddies, and the kid is set. Training camp, the young fella gets hurt, he is battling through a rather painful injury, the hammy, but he still fights on. Finally the ankle injury. If it is not one thing it is another, just as the big fella starts playing well, finding his niche again with this new team, he injures his ankle. One of Chris' many strengths, and prolly one of his biggest, is that he is very very nimbel for a 7 footer. so now he gets hurt, but he is still battling trying to get his 10 and 10. So now, three months later the big fella is injury free, he is adjusted to the new teammates, and he is back to putting up double-doubles. Give the kaveman his due, this kid is going to be aroound for awhile, he is worth every penny of the new contract, and he will lead us back to the playoffs.

I loved the dominant W (and don't care if the Heat was out of gas). The way Kaman man-handled Zo for his best performance in a long time was big... But Korolev's minute was priceless - he is just so far from home...

It was subtle tonight, but the Livvy Evolution is playing out in subtleties. It apears to me, at least, that Dunleavy no longer calls a play for routine last shots and just lets Shaun create. Again last night he delivered with a drive into the lane and pull up.

The bucket was meaningless, but thats the kind of progress that needs to happen. Building confidence by executing.

I'll still never forgive Dunleavy for drafting Korolev before Danny Granger and Antoine Wright. And now they aren't even picking up Korolev's contract next year. What a waste of millions. I'm beginning to feel sorry for D. Sterling and that's not easy to do.

there has to be a reason that Korolev is still on the active roster. I believe he does have skills. The reason they didn't resign him is because they won't have to worry about other teams trying to swoop in and take him.

Of course passing up Danny Granger was stupid. A number of teams blew it with him. There were other good picks available. Head, Warrick, Stoudamire, Garcia, May, McCants, Green, Jack, Lee. So I don't know why you mentioned Antoine Wright.

They say that Korolev is lights out in practice. He can dribble, pass, shoot. Some say he has a Larry Bird type skill set, but he is athletic. I think he will be a good player.

Clippers are definitely interested in keeping Korolev. They didn't pick-up his contract for his own good. They expect him to improve by end of this season. Livingston-Kaman-Korolev(LKK) might be our future stars with Brand & Maggette providing solid base.

I don't think Clippers are stupid enough to trade Maggette. They know his value & he'll only get better. He still has 8 solid years of basketball left in his pocket.

Dunleavy is just a mystery to me. His approach to the Maggette situation is pretty nuts--he just seems stubborn and unwilling to cut Maggs the same slack that he gives Cassell and others. His handling of Wilcox made a lot more sense, but other coaches might have gotten a lot more out of CW's talent and ended things better. And then there's the Korolev situation and pick.

I was following the game on ESPN gamecast--saw that YK made his 3rd appearance of the year at the end of the 1st half--and went home to watch the 2nd half. Didn't get to it until the start of the 4th and the score was something like 93-68, very happy to see that the Clips played such a strong 2nd and 3rd.

But with Ewing, Ross, Maggette, Thomas, and Kaman (I think that was the lineup), the Clips played horribly and the kid on the Heat scored 10 straight points and with the Heat down by 14 MD brought Brand and Liv back. Somebody can check this more carefully, but my point is that when you have a 25+ point lead going into the 4th against a team with literally no weapons, how do you not play the 2nd year guy you thought was so great when you drafted him. If you're not going to play him then--instead of Ross, who has a bad back and doesn't need minutes, or Maggs, who needs to play quality minutes and score points when they're hard to come by--when are you going to play him?

I'd like to think that YK has great skills, that he might be the shooter the Clips are missing, that he's a great passer, that he's an important part of the future... but we won't know.

Hey Pepper
The reason I mentioned Wright is because he plays the same position, and at the draft after Granger he was probably the strongest prospect at that position. As far as not signing Korolev, how does that protect him from other teams? Without a contract for next year, if he is that good, he will be available to any team that wants to show him the money. That was a first round draft choice who sat on the bench and collected 4 mil. Sounds a lot like Darko, a wasted pick for the Pistons.

Pepper, I agree. I'm out of touch about Maggette situation. But I'd like to see that blind side. I was in favor of trading him when we were struggling. But why make Maggette a scapegoat? Oh, yes...Mobley does all the little things. Mikki Moore used to do all the little things. But for less money. We need Mobley to score atleast 18 points a game. If he can't do it... pressure on Brand is going to mount and we are going to lose against quality teams.
We didn't sign Mobley(instead of QRichardson) to do little things. We were badly in need of a respectable outside shooter. Unfortunately he has become a player who does little things for big money. He not only ate up our salary cap space, he is also eating up our valuable minutes on the floor. I'd rather see Korolev playing more minutes.

Let's not forget... that Houston traded him to Orlando and they traded him to Kings and tired Mobley signed with Clips because he owns his house in LA. He didn't come here to play hard. He came here thinking Clips are average team with poor expectations.

Why the heck he's taking just 5 shots a game? If he's not confident enough to make 12 to 15 shot attempts...he doesn't deserve to be on the floor for more than 18 min. a game. Period.

Let's not forget, its Brand & Maggette who helped build this team with their impeccable character & pure work ethic.
Both are not considered as pure talents.
But in NBA you have to be mentally tenacious & physically fit to survive.
Fortunately for us, we have them in our team. Because it helps to maintain stability. And makes it easier to build this team with young talents like Kaman & Livingston.

At Miami, Cassel & Mobley didn't play.
But team chemistry was at highest level.
That says something about this team.

I agree with you Dave, Mobley is probably overpaid. I think signing him had to do with losing Bobby Simmons and mission out on Ray Allen. Elgin and Dun knew they needed to make SOME move, and Mobley was a respectable player, and could hit some threes. Never considered that he came here just to be in LA, but I think he plays hard.

I also agree about the Maggette thing. He should be the starter, as he would on virtually any other team. It is unfair that he lost his starting job because of an injury last year. Maggette paid his dues over the years. (I do agree that he sucks on D.

I think team chemistry was very strong last year. Not sure what happened this year. I don't think that losing Vlad could make that much difference, but I will note that his team defense was pretty strong. He rotated well and seemed to fit the system. He was on the floor for most of the record setting 2nd half against NOOCH.

I lay a large portion of the teams stagnation at Dunleavy's feet. He can only get a team so far, as he has proven.

MP... you are right about Mobley being playing hard and his intentions for signing with Clips. But he needs to be aware of his #2 position in this team(OK, #3 with Cassell on the team)and he has to have that scorers' mentality. Only then defenders would take their eyes off BRAND. He can shoot 3 pointers any given day. And it's time for him to play with some killer instinct. I want to see him having best season of his carrer with Clippers.

We are lucky to have Dunleavy as our coach. I like his work ethic & total dedication. All coaches have problems with their coaches. Atleast for us it's only between Corey & him. We can tolerate that, I guess.

Kaman did have a good game, but for $55 million you had better put up 20 points once in a while.

Where is the applause for Mourning? He put up the same numbers as Kaman and had twice as many blocks while playing an entire quarter less. While Kaman had several scoring options by his side, who did Zo have to pass to? Last time I checked, Zo is pretty old and missing a kidney. I'm sure he'd accept a kidney in exchange for a tweaked ankle.

As part-time L.A. resident, more-time Toronto resident, I pose to the good people of Clipperblog whether the inevitable trade for Maggette would be of interest if you received back Mo Peterson and Jose Calderon. Gives you great 3-point shooting in Mo, and excellent back-up PG as insurance when your youngun or oldun goes down. Gives us Raps the athletic swingman we haven't had since VC left town. Am I out my head? This makes sense to me.

Amen MP. It all comes down to Dunleavy. With the same players as last year the defense should be at least as good. Good defense comes from hard work, unlilke offense which comes from great talent. Anyone can play defense if he is willling to work hard. If they could do it last year then what happened? It has to be MD not being able to motivate his players and being stuck in a gear that doesn't allow him to change strategy or personnel. He may be great on matchups but basketball is more than just matchups. Look at Phil Jackson who is one of the weaker X and 0 coaches. He is taking a team that on paper was picked to finish out of the playoffs and making them a legitimate contender. I never was a big Phil Jackson fan but I'm becoming even less of a Mike Dunleavy fan. A change has to be made somewhere.

No need to make any changes Arnie. It's good for us if lose maximum games this season and go up in lottery ladder.

Let's be realistic. We don't have what it takes to win this season. We should use rest of this season to develop Korolev, Ewing and Paul Davis. Also we can bring Baby Shaque & Guillermo Diaz sooner than our initial plans.

Sometimes things don't go well as we planned. We have 2 best options: 1. Play to lose & win top lottery pick(losing to last place Atlanta tonite makes it easier). 2. Prepare Kaman, Livingston, Korolev, Ewing & Paul Davis. Next season Maggette, Cassell, Mobley, A.Williams, Rebraca and Singleton won't be wearing Clipper uniform.